Kumar Dharmasena gets Alastair Cook again!

Times of India

December 17, 2012

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NAGPUR: Alastair Cook was a run machine till he came to Nagpur. The England skipper, who started his Test career here in 2006 and scored a hundred on debut, wouldn't like remember this Test.He succumbed to bad decisions in both innings, both from the same umpire — Kumar Dharmasena. If he was unlucky to be given out LBW in the first innings, on Sunday he was given out caught behind when replays suggested his bat had made no contact with the ball.

Apart from the rank bad decisions, though, Cook didn't look like the batsman who scored three tons in his previous three Tests. While he scored one off 28 deliveries in the first innings, on Sunday he took 27 deliveries to get off the mark and another 27 to get to the next.He eventually made 13 off 93 balls. However, if England go on to draw this game, Cook will surely forgive Dharmasena.Even Nick Compton was wrongly given out LBW, when in fact there was a thick inside edge which lobbed to Kohli at gully. If the Decision Review System (DRS) was there, maybe his mode of dismissal could have been changed.But then, with the DRS around, Cook wouldn't have gone so cheaply, and numerous umpiring errors throughout the series could have been rectified to an extent. But then, is the BCCI listening?